5 year check up

Two weeks ago David had has 5 year check up. He did FANTASTIC!

First he did the hearing and eye exam. He passed with flying colors.

Then we had to wait for the doctor for about 20 minutes. I noticed a full box of crayons on the counter so we grabbed them and started drawing on the paper that covers the exam table. David is a great artist but especially enjoyed drawing his entire alphabet a couple of times.

Here he is being a little ham.The doctor came in and gave David a great report. He got 4 huge shots in his legs...but he was a champ. I held him between my legs so he'd be still while the nurse gave him the shots. He seriously didn't move a muscle...he didn't even flinch. Sometimes I want to cry when I get shots...he defintely didn't get his pain tolerance from me! David is almost 48 squared. He's 48 pounds and 48 1/8 inches tall. He's growing up way too fast. Where has the time gone?

Harvest Apple Squares

At a recent ladies club social in my neighborhood these Harvest Apple Squares were served. They were delicious and the woman who made them emailed the recipe out.

Considering I still have a lot of apples from our trip to NC left over I went ahead a made them tonight. It took about 20 minutes from start to finish. They are baking now and my house smells divine. I LOVE fall.

Here's the recipe:

Harvest Apple Squares
Makes: 32 bars

2 cups flour
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
2 tbs milk
1 egg, beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups chopped apples

PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, brown sugar, 1/2 cup of the granulated sugar and the cinnamon. Cut in the cold butter using a pastry blender or two knives (using knives will take forever) until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in walnuts. Reserve 2 cups of the crumb mixture for topping. Spread remaining crumb mixture firmly onto the bottom of 13x9 inch baking pan.

BEAT cream cheese and milk with electric mixer of medium speed until well blended. Add remaining 1/4 granulated sugar, the egg and vanilla. Mix well. Pour over crust. Top with apples; sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.

BAKE 30 minutes. Cool completely. Cut into 32 bars to serve. Store in tightly covered container in refrigerator.

A 6 mile run and a visit to the ER

This morning started out by me waking up at 6 a.m. to get up and ready to run a local 10k (the Vulcan Run - Birmingham's longest running 10k). I picked up my friend, Cara, and we got to downtown early enough to basically freeze. We both wore shorts and t-shirts because we knew as the race went on we'd get hot, but to start it was a bit chilly. We took our Team Vulcan picture and stood around for a while waiting for the race to start. Other folks were actually running BEFORE the race. Seriously? Why would you waste any energy before the race? Seems like a waste to me. Of course they were warm while I was freezing.

Since I haven't been able to train (due to a continual problem from two recent surgeries) I thought I'd have to walk the entire race, however, I ran a good bit. I ran S.L.O.W. but ran nonetheless. I was pretty sure Cara would take off and leave me in the dust, but between her shin pain and my slow running we stuck together for most of the race. I think she finished about 20 seconds before me. I'm not sure about my time, but I finished in around 1:30. That's 15 minutes per mile (which sucks) but at least I did it!

I came home with just enough time to shower and head out to a birthday party. On the way to the party Brad was doubled over in extreme pain. He has a pretty high pain tolerance so I knew something was really wrong. Thankfully, a friend of ours was also going to the party....so I asked her if David could stay with her and if I could pick him up from her house later in the day. She didn't hesistate (thankfully)!

I asked Brad which ER to take him to and he said "I don't care". Uh, really? I didn't know the area. At all. So luckily KC told me that the closest one was about 15 miles away. I drove 100 miles an hour down the interstate rushing to get him to the ER. Shhhh, don't tell.

We got to the ER and the security guard checked him in. This guy was slower than Christmas and immediately tried to diagnose Brad's symptoms. I was so irritated with him. But after waiting about 10 minutes they called him back and the ER staff was wonderful. Shout out to Shelby County ER. I was pleasantly surprised by everything (once we got passed the darn security guard).

They almost immediately started an IV of morphine, antibiotics and anti-nausea medicine (after trying 3 times to get the IV in his hand) and within 5-10 minutes he began to get a bit of relief. A cat scan proved that Brad has a kidney stone. He has had one before...about 8 years ago...but the last one felt much different to him...so that's why we were so worried about this unusual pain. The stone moved it's way along the 'path' and he should pass it soon (less than a few days, hopefully).

Brad is now laying on the couch relaxing. He's on some pain meds to help with the pain and it seems to be working.

KC called me this afternoon and offered to let David spend the night with them. I hesitated, but then took her up on the offer....to give both Brad and I a night to relax and recoup (me from my 6 mile race and him from his kidney stone pain). I KNOW my 6 miles don't compare, but I am awfully sore. Poor Bethany.

It's definitely been an interesting day...and now I need to finish this post so I can go take care of my sweet Brad.

Halloween 2009

Last night we had about 30 people over for a Halloween Party. Really we were just the house that everyone congregated at before heading out to trick or treat. I had great plans to come up with a prize for the best costume, but that never happened. Probably for the best since the non-winners would have been sad.

We had a cowboy (my precious David), a wolverine, 3 Auburn football players, a pumpkin, a ninja, a sniper, Hewitt-Trussville football player, a ballerina, minnie mouse, a cheerleader, and some scary thing. It was much fun.

We provided some mini caramel apples, hot dogs and drinks....and everyone else brought snacks to share. That made it really easy on us! I'm all about the ease of a party.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures of David in his costume. But here are some taken from last night.

Brad helping David get ready...

Ray, Trevor (the ninja) and Emma (she was supposed to be a flower, but her costume was a bit too big)...Aspen (this is the best picture taken all night...how cute is that face?)...
Brad in his typical fashion (hand in front of his face)...
Eating hot dogs and snacks...
Emily (aka Punky Brewster) and her precious babe, Ava (the ballerina). Props to Emily for dressing up. She was the only adult costume wearer of the bunch. She looked GREAT...
The Spruiell boys (minus Jacob, the oldest who didn't dress up) - the sniper, scrary guy and football player)...
The rest of the gang (almost)...
Vicki, Aspen, Ava and Emily...
MY COWBOY...ain't he cute?
So, now it's November and our neighbors were putting up their CHRISTMAS lights tonight. Yeah, baby! :)

Field Trip

I was looking through some old pictures and ran across these. Emily and I took a field trip one day (on our lunch break) to this old creepy abandoned building in Irondale. These pictures are from that field trip. We had done some researching and couldn’t ever figure out what this building was, but Brad recently heard that it used to be a very nice country club that closed down after someone drowned in the pool many years ago. Who knows if it’s true or not.

While it was creepy it was kind of neat looking around. We saw the pool (which appears to have a path straight though the cat tails for some rather large animal that enjoys going for a dip), the grand staircase, the locker room, bathrooms and lots of small rooms (meeting rooms possibly). Each room was completely dark in the basement area so lots of these pictures were taken without us actually knowing what we were taking pictures of. One picture especially below kinda freaked me out (you’ll see a chair in a corner and my imagination went crazy and thought there was someone down there sitting in it).

It would be really neat to one day find out the true history of this place.

The Art of the Dance

Check out David's mad dance skillz. He has some pure talent. I'm thinking he could audition for So You Think You Can Dance, Season 27.

My personal favorite...Oops! Maybe he's not quite SYTYCD material.

We picked apples...sorta

We stayed at Jellystone Campground in Cherokee, NC and it was great...from the trick or treating with Yogi to the river 20 feet from our campsite to the very friendly staff. I called a couple weeks prior to our arrival and asked the lady who answered the phone (Beth) if she knew of an apple orchard in the area where we could pick our own apples. This is something I have always wanted to do but have never had the opportunity to do.

Beth was super helpful and said she would give us information when we checked in about an apple orchard about an hour and a half away. SO...when we checked in last Friday Beth's husband handed us a business card to the apple orchard.

While reading the information on the business card I said to Brad "This place better be an apple orchard and not just a fruit stand". If I had only known. So we plugged the address into the GPS and off we went to Waynesville, NC. Did you know that 35 mountain (curvy/hilly) miles takes a LOT longer than 35 highway miles? Well, it does.

So the drive was nice (this was one of the only days of our entire vacation that it didn't rain)...and I was SO excited about running around an orchard with David. The trees were beginning to change so we got to enjoy some nice leaf peeping. On a side note - have you ever heard of leaf peeping? Odd term, I think. But it's a for real thing...I've heard it on the radio a few times lately. I thought I was all cool and hip for saying we were leaf peeping. Brad thought I was a dork.

We get to the orchard and guess what? It's a FRUIT STAND. Seriously. See?
I was so mad (well, really disappointed) that I just wanted to cry. That only lasted about 10 seconds because crying over apples is kinda stupid. So once I got over my pity party we decided to buy 20 pounds of apples (without experiencing the joy of picking our own apples) from a bin at the fruit stand. 20 pounds for $8. Can't beat that...or sometimes you can if you find 5 pounds at the store for $1.99. It happens. But it somehow felt cool getting them from a fruit stand (with an apple orchard in the back yard...an apple orchard that we were not allowed to pick from....how rude....okay, I'm done).

I asked someone at the fruit stand if there was anything ELSE fun to do in Waynesville. The nice lady said "Oh, you have to go to Lake Jenaluska, it's fun and you can feed the geese". Well, we have geese in Alabama but if that's what Waynesville has to offer then I'm game. We discovered just how lame Lake Jenaluska was. Very.

So we brought our 20 pounds of apples home with us. I shared some with a friend and will cook the rest. I make apple butter during fall each year, so I might make some this week. Tonight I made fresh applesauce that David asked me to make then told me it was gross. Awesome. I do have a recipe for a great apple strudel muffin...I'm sure I'll make some of those too. I'll share the recipe, if I can remember, later.